Tag "Oil"

Joining an OPEC-led bloc to keep oil off the global market to push prices up, Russia to start the year had agreed to cut 228,000 b/d from October levels.
Yet in March, the nation’s production was just 190,000 b/d less.
As a sanctioned U.S. country, the question I want to answer: Do We Import Oil From Russia?
This fall makes sense since U.S. crude production has more than doubled since 2011 to around 12.2 million b/d today, while domestic demand has been flat at 19-20 million b/d.
Russia’s oil exports in 2018 totaled $130 billion, up nearly 40% from the year before.
Each year, Russia has an extra 8-9 million b/d of crude oil available for export, the largest oil surplus in the world.
Oil prices would fall to that level if OPEC abandoned its deal as well.
In contrast, U.S. proven reserves have increased 66% over that time to 50 billion barrels.
Russia realizes the undeniable ongoing importance of oil and gas and is seeking to develop the Artic for its treasure trove of natural resources.
In addition, although the country has not yet needed to exploit it, there is unlimited potential in Russia for shale oil and gas production.

Scientists from the University of East Anglia have discovered a unique oil eating bacteria in the deepest part of the Earth’s oceans — the Mariana Trench.
By comparison, Mount Everest is 8,848 metres high.
Dr Jonathan Todd, from UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “Our research team went down to collect samples of the microbial population at the deepest part of the Mariana Trench — some 11,000 metres down. “So these types of microorganisms essentially eat compounds similar to those in oil and then use it for fuel. “We also found that this bacteria is really abundant at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.”
In fact, the team found that the proportion of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria in the Trench is the highest on Earth.
The scientists isolated some of these microbes and demonstrated that they consume hydrocarbons in the laboratory under environmental conditions that simulate those in the Mariana Trench. “To our surprise, we also identified biologically produced hydrocarbons in the ocean sediment at the bottom of the trench. “These hydrocarbons, similar to the compounds that constitute diesel fuel, have been found in algae at the ocean surface but never in microbes at these depths.” “Identifying the microbes that produce these hydrocarbons is one of our top priorities, as is understanding the quantity of hydrocarbons released by human activity into this isolated environment,” added Prof Xiao-Hua Zhang.

They left their homes deep in the Amazon rainforest to peacefully march through the streets, hold banners, sing songs and, most importantly, submit documents to the provincial Judicial Council to launch a lawsuit seeking to stop the government from auctioning off their ancestral lands in the Pastaza region to oil companies.
Co-filed with the Coordinating Council of the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador–Pastaza (Pastaza CONCONAWEP), a political organization of the Waorani, and the Ecuadorian Human Rights Ombudsman against the Ecuadorian Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources, the Secretary of Hydrocarbons and the Ministry of Environment, the lawsuit alleges that the Waorani’s rights granted to them under the Ecuadorian constitution “were violated due to an improper consultation process prior to an oil auction which would offer up the Waorani’s lands in the Pastaza region to the highest bidding oil company,” according to Amazon Frontlines, a nonprofit advocacy group supporting the Indigenous peoples living in the Amazon rainforest.
The concessions overlap with the titled territories of the Shuar, Achuar, Kichwa, Waorani, Shiwiar, Andoa and Sápara nations, with one block located almost entirely within Waorani territory.
In November 2018, following pressure from Ecuador’s Amazonian Indigenous nationalities, Carlos Pérez, the nation’s hydrocarbon minister, reduced the auction from 16 blocks to two.
In December 2017, following a two-week, 200-mile march by Indigenous activists from the Amazon jungle to Quito, the nation’s capital, demanding an end to extractive industry development on their territories, the Moreno administration made a commitment to the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), Ecuador’s largest Indigenous organization, to end new oil and mining concessions in regions where local Indigenous nationalities had not been consulted.
The suit claims these rights were violated as the Waorani were not properly consulted prior to the announcement of the new oil concessions.
In addition, the Ecuadorian government is also bound by two international agreements to consult with its Indigenous populations: Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), ratified by the nation in 1998, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted in 2007.
However, many activists and Indigenous leaders ultimately don’t want consultation at this point; they want oil development to end entirely. “We don’t need more consultation, however.
This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

Norway’s $1 trillion oil fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, is to plunge billions of dollars into wind and solar power projects.
The decision follows Saudi Arabia’s oil fund selling off its last oil and gas assets.
Analysts say the investments are likely to power faster growth of green energy.
Unlisted projects make up more than two-thirds of the whole renewable infrastructure market, which is worth trillions of dollars.
But now the sum the fund can invest in green projects has been doubled to $14 billion.
“Even a fund built on oil is seeing that the future is green,” said Jan Erik Saugestad, CEO of Storebrand Asset Management.
In March, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund said it would dispose of its investments in 134 companies that explore for oil and gas, worth almost $8 billion.
The fund divested $6.5 billion of coal-related investments in 2015.
“Unlisted renewable energy is a growth industry,” said Tom Sanzillo at IEEFA.
In 2017, $18.8 billion went into fossil fuel investments, compared with just $0.4 billion into renewables.

Many people claim that it’s changed the appearance and feeling of their skin, especially when it comes to texture and hydration.
Yoon says that it’s not about doing every single step every time (two masks a day might be hard on the skin!)
I did masks every other day, as my skin skews sensitive.
Personally, I tend to spend more on serums, creams, and cleansers because I notice the biggest difference in my skin in those particular categories.
Take a break from masking or exfoliating if your skin is feeling too stimulated.
Feel free to incorporate products you know already work for your skin.
It doesn’t sound like much, but the power of a brief face massage at the beginning and end of each day is mind-bending.
Having to commit to this routine twice (which never took longer than five minutes, plus the mask) also punctuated my day with moments of reflection.
How did the day go?
The routine helped with hyperpigmentation, but I definitely didn’t get glass skin in two weeks’ time.

The global oil service market will not return to previous highs until 2025.
That’s according to energy research and business intelligence company Rystad Energy, which forecasts that global service market revenues will match the $920 billion mark seen in 2014 in around six years’ time.
These revenues are expected to hit 80 percent of the 2014 figure in 2022.
“This will be the longest slump faced by the oilfield service industry since the 1980s, with about $2.3 trillion in revenues lost along the way,” Audun Martinsen, Rystad Energy’s head of oilfield service research, said in a company statement.
“On the bright side, in only three years’ time, activity levels will be higher than they were in 2014, although the cost cuts achieved in the sector means spending levels will only be 80 percent of what was seen in that peak year,” he added.
More than 100 new offshore projects are aiming for 2019 sanctions and an expected $210 billion will be spent on offshore oilfield services globally this year, Rystad Energy outlined in a statement released at the time.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS/Australian Maritime Safety Authority WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — An environmental disaster is unfolding in the Pacific after a large ship ran aground and began leaking oil next to a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Solomon Islands, Australian officials said Friday.
Footage taken this week shows little progress has been made in stopping the Solomon Trader ship from leaking oil since it ran aground Feb. 5, according to the Australian High Commission in the Solomon Islands.
Australian experts estimate more than 80 tons of oil has leaked into the sea and shoreline in the ecologically delicate area and that more than 660 tons of oil remains aboard the Hong Kong-flagged ship, which is continuing to leak.
The ship was chartered by the Bintan Mining company in the Solomon Islands to carry bauxite, which is used in aluminum production.
Bintan Solomon Islands chief executive Fred Tang was not immediately available for comment Friday.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said there was a high risk that the remaining oil would leak and it was “profoundly disappointed” by the slow response.
It said the Solomon Islands government had advised it that the responsibility to salvage the ship and mitigate the environmental impact lay with the companies involved.
Radio New Zealand reported that the ship’s owner King Trader Ltd. had sent a team to help with the salvage operation while Bintan had claimed that as charterer, it had no legal responsibility for the ship or liability for the accident.
It says the island is the largest raised coral atoll in the world and is a “true natural laboratory” for scientific study.
Both Australia and New Zealand have sent experts to help with the monitoring of the oil spill and the potential salvage of the ship.

Nine activists from the environmental group Extinction Rebellion have been arrested after they glued themselves to the front of a central London hotel to demand that the petroleum industry end its “deeply immoral” behaviour in driving climate change.
Specialist police officers spent about two hours unsticking the protesters from windows next to the entrance of the InterContinental Park Lane hotel in Mayfair, which was hosting an oil and gas industry conference.
Police put up screens to conceal the protesters from view as the officers detached them.
We can’t just carry on like this.” Another said: “The petroleum industry has been complicit in the destruction of our environment and they have been making money out of selling products that are harmful and we need them to stop.” Extinction Rebellion (@ExtinctionR) Jeremy, 51, IT consultant, glued on to the Park Lane Hotel, where oil and gas industry leaders are gathering for International Petroleum Week “I’m here because I’m acting like the truth of the climate and ecological emergency is real”.
A Metropolitan police spokesperson said: “Police were called to reports of a protest at a hotel on Hamilton Place, W1.
Extinction Rebellion said oil and gas operators and investors should respond seriously to the climate crisis rather than meet to form new partnerships and discuss expansion.
We have to start talking about that.
They continue to put private profit over human life.
The fact that they are still talking about acquiring new fossil fuel reserves at this point in the climate crisis is not only deeply immoral, it is evidently criminal.
Similar events are planned by Extinction Rebellion groups in 30 other countries.

In fact, only Cruz himself raised more money from the oil and gas industry.
It was especially confusing since O’Rourke had publicly pledged not to take any money from political action committees (PACs, which are often used by corporations and industries to influence elections) and was even at one point listed on the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge website before being removed.
While O’Rourke actually didn’t take PAC money, he did raise a ton of money in individual donations from people who work in the oil and gas industry.
The counties in green show communities where the local economy is most dependent on oil and gas, and where a just and equitable energy transition is most crucial.
Naturally many of those counties are located in Texas, and in fact O’Rourke made it a campaign talking point that he had visited each one of Texas’s 254 counties.
As climate justice activists have stated, “Transition is inevitable.
The No Fossil Fuel Money pledge applies not just to PAC money, but also donations of $200 or more from fossil fuel executives.
But a question remains: are small donations from ordinary folks in the oil industry the same as a $2,700 check from a CEO — or a mega-donation from a PAC?
But in many places where the oil and gas industry is strong, there are inevitably a large number of non-millionaire workers who depend on the industry for their livelihood.
Corporate money in politics is absolutely corrupting our democracy, yet O’Rourke’s small donors should remind us that many parts of the U.S. are economically dependent on oil and gas extraction, and that those workers need to be at the center of any transition away from fossil fuels.

Yet that’s just what the Trump administration would open the door to as it prepares for oil and gas drilling and moves to authorize seismic testing, a precursor to drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
Earthjustice has long worked to defend the Arctic Refuge, which now faces the greatest threat in decades as the Trump administration barrels forward with plans for an oil and gas lease sale as early as next year.
Polar bears on the coastal plain will be especially vulnerable to harm from seismic operations and drilling.
Stealth Angel Survival Visit Site Scientists refer to the polar bears that live in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as the Southern Beaufort Sea population.
As ice melts away, polar bear mothers are increasingly going on land, to the coastal plain, to build their dens—and they are particularly vulnerable to disturbance while denning.
Working 24 hours a day for months on end, this company envisions sending work crews of 150 people or more into this polar bear territory to map out oil and gas reserves.
According to Dr. Amstrup of Polar Bears International, SAE’s proposal could bring deadly consequences.
Amstrup warned in a letter to the Bureau of Land Management: “Lethal disturbances are likely when a heavy vehicle actually runs over a den … On average, if there are 11 undetected bear dens on the refuge, a seismic survey like that proposed by SAE has a 25 percent chance that at least one polar bear will be killed when a heavy vehicle runs over it.
The scientist concludes: “It is virtually certain that most undetected polar bears in their dens will be disturbed at some level.”
It would destroy one of the last truly intact wilderness areas on Earth, an open expanse of public lands that for decades remained off-limits to drilling precisely because Congress recognized its extraordinary value.

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